FLVillan

Actually, Unai said last year that two keepers on the bench was something they did routinely to aid in the pre-match warm-up routines for the starter and GK coach as well as give the younger keeper experience of match day. Five maximum subs allowed so he still has more than enough outfield players available. With the meticulous detail that goes into the planning from Unai and his staff, he knows exactly what he wants on the bench for any given game.

is it just me or did Unai appear irritated by the press conference today?

Not a new concept at all, just a re-phrase.... In the good old days they were 'inside forwards' - playing off a centre-forward. Freedom to play off the centre-forward, roam into wide areas or drop deeper (into what is now called the number ten role). Gary Shaw (Withe), Brian Little (Gray or Deehan).

Stupid thing to do for certain and VAR came in useful to get the red card decision correct. But the overriding thing for me is this incident was an example of what I'm enjoying about the women's game. The Nigerian player barely reacted - just gave the ref a "what the hell was that" reaction. In a men's match we'd have had histrionics and rolling around, feigning injury. The women's game is refreshingly honest.

Trust me, there are plenty, perhaps even a majority of folks here in the US who haven't shed a tear to see this iteration of the women's team lose. Them inserting themselves into politics, the "equal pay" hoax (they actually receive more than the men, despite their matches/tournaments generating less than 15% of the revenue), and their complete lack of respect for the national anthem have caused many to grow tired of them. They didn't deserve to even progress from the group, so those saying they were unlucky against the Swedes is failing to recognize the fact that their poor performances in the group led them to have to play a tougher round-of-16 match. One half-decent performance out of four won't win you a world cup. Rapinoe must have been getting penalty training from Kane...

So I'm currently over in the UK for business. First day had to come to Luton. Driving through town for a meeting and saw what I assumed was an abandoned football ground, overgrown on the outside and looking decidedly derelict. Imagine my surprise when I saw a sign on the other side saying "Welcome to Luton Town FC."

Olsen is apparently really good on the training ground, according to our pre-Unai GK coach - apparently keeps Emi on an even keel and understands his role well. BUT none of that, in my mind, says he should be our number two. The same qualities were attributed to the likes of Micah Richards. Olsen is like the Titus Bramble of goalkeepers. Looks the part, clearly very athletic and agile, even occasionally produces some great moments, but 40,000 (+10) people collectively themselves whenever the ball/an attacker is within 30 yards of our goal. He fills me with us much fear as Nyland did. I really hope he can prove us wrong, just as much as I really hope we sign a new goalkeeper before the season kicks off. I'll take either.

Marv to Luton is very similar to Mings to Villa. They got a loanee from a premier league club who hadn't been getting any playing time, he upgraded their team in a critical area and he helps win promotion. Then, a permanent transfer. If he does for them what Mings has done for us then everyone will be happy. Marv is one of those players that you simply cannot dislike. Always plays at 100%, always humble.

Chukwumeka?

I honestly think that, under Ellis and probably Lerner, we did just settle for whatever the brand was willing/able to produce. Ellis most definitely wouldn't have spent an extra penny in this area.... Hopefully that has now changed. With the money around the premier league nowadays and NSWE leading the way, I'd certainly hope that it has.... perhaps the first indicator was the Luke kits which appeared to be well thought out with a nice shade of claret. CSI has a lot of sportswear companies as clients, including Puma, Reebok, Asics, as well as our own Fanatics, so quite possible that we will get some consistency moving forwards...

That's actually the point I was making (referencing college and lower level pro teams as opposed to the very top pro franchises/leagues). Wolves are a great example with their old gold, they had a kit just a few years ago (adidas?) that was basically yellow, not even close in colour to their true old gold. Villa, Wet Spam, Burnley all get lumped into a single claret category and the manufacturer will produce whatever their version is. Our Diadora kits a few years ago were extremely light, whereas the Under Armour ones were probably the darkest I've seen. I'd bet if you could find Villa and Wet Spam kits produced in the same year by the same manufacturer (not sure it's ever happened to be honest) the shade of claret would be identical (if the material had the same density/absorbency). Pantone was originally created for printing/printed material and has been adapted more recently for digital.

Tis true. Only the very very top income-producing franchises can dictate a specific colour shade with kit manufacturers. For example, when we were supplied by Reebok, and they were also the exclusive NFL supplier, they had colours such as "Dolphin Teal" and "Jaguar Gold". When I was at Brown University, they signed a contract with Nike because they were the only supplier who produced in the colour brown (no coincidence that they had the NFL contract by that stage and the Cleveland Browns would have needed it).

This is an interesting thread. I've always maintained that leaving Villa is, in the majority of cases, a kiss of death. Very few managers and players who leave us go on to bigger and better. Yorke, Young, Barry, Milner, Gueye are the obvious recent exceptions. But the list that left and never performed to the same level is far longer, stretching all the way back to the 70s.

Pity nobody ever added the water to the dry mix on that concrete....

In January, we said no chance are we signing a left-back, not a real need as we have Digne, Augustinsson and Young to play there. And presto along came Moreno and Augustinsson was out the door! In Unai I trust, and if he brings in another player I'm not going to make the mistake of questioning the wisdom of the signing or what will happen next. To be honest, I wouldn't be very surprised to see Mings or Konsa get sold at a healthy profit. Unlikely, but I trust this management at the club to get it right. We all questioned the sales of Gray and Gidman in 1979/80, and look what happened there!

I have some insight into this question (I did sports kit and two logo changes in a ten year span at a US college sports dept). The new college logo was specific with the pantone matching system (PMS) for the ink colours. All of the printed material and digital logos were perfect. The issue is that the PMS system doesn't match up with fabric dyes. So while you can create consistency with any logo or artwork in printed/digital form, getting a fabric manufacturer to come up with an exact match is extremely difficult. Moreover, the type of fabric used (nylon, poly, cotton etc etc) and the density of the materials will absorb the dye at different levels, causing two pieces of fabric to look significantly different with the same dye. Add in the fact that most of the production facilities are scattered around in southeast Asia, and it becomes extremely challenging, no matter how much money is being spent. In one of our college changes the new logo was predominantly blue and the supplier for all of our teams at the time (adidas) had several shades of dark blue. We got samples of them and in a room of people, half of them said the closest match was navy blue and half said it was "dark royal" (they offered two shades of royal blue). At one point, we had a baseball shirt alongside a basketball shirt in the exact-same colour on a table and they looked completely different shades. Thankfully I had the final say and went for navy blue for all teams because there was no chance I was putting any of our kids into Small Heath colours....

Well, this is a nice (improved) replica of the away shirt from the worst season in my lifetime (86-7) so now is as good a time as any to banish the ghost with Unai in charge....

I haven't seen a live MLS match in over ten years - can't enjoy it to be honest. Even when I had a couple of my ex-college players at NE and Seattle, I just couldn't enjoy it. Considering the level he played previously and his experience, surprising really that Guzan hasn't really had a sniff for the US team.... happy for him that he's still making a living from the game though....

From a career standpoint this fella has played a lot of games since breaking through as a 16 year old. Some are concerned he's got too many miles in his legs. For contrast I'd present James Milner, Gareth Barry and Ashley Young - all who broke into first team football as teenagers and all who were performing at the highest level at age 37 and beyond.....

Jeez, and they could have said "wearing the number 8 to follow in the footsteps of Little, Shaw, Platt, Townsend...."

I see where you're coming from on this, and agree with what you say to a point. On the flip side though, I think the new Holte was built the way it was to essentially become the new focal point after Ellis butchered the Trinity Rd, hence the architecture. From a viewing standpoint, the Holte is the most visible stand when approaching the ground, as two sides (Witton Lane and Witton End) are both hemmed in by housing and other infrastructure. Space around the ground is very limited and (I think) most designing is done with interior space, capacity and comfort in mind. I think we would all love to see a facade similar to the Holte on all four sides of the ground, but not necessarily at the expense of capacity and comfort. After all, it is inside the ground where all of us spend more of our time..... I think if the surrounding area had more open space, then it would be far more feasible to have grand brick facade and outside stairs leading up (like the Holte), but on the Witton side/end there just isn't the space to do it. Given the choice between a compromise in stand design/capacity or relocation to a more spacious plot of land, there is no discussion to be had among 99% of Villa fans. I for one am grateful to our last three owners (even the fraud Xia) that discussion about relocation to a shiny new 60,000-seat stadium somewhere outside Aston has never been raised.

I have my tickets. It's the 26th of July. 7:00pm local time.

Based on the above I think I'm older than you, so I present: (I've gone for players who all, at some time or another, played at a decent level but were a complete waste of a shirt at Villa.......) 1. Les Sealey (RIP) 2. Habib Beye 3. Noel Blake 4. Joleon Lescott 5. David Unsworth 6. Steve Hodge 7. Tommy Craig 11 Sasa Curcic 8. Robert Hopkins 9. Tony Cascarino 10. Nigel Callahan Subs: GK: Mervyn Day. ST: Frank Macavennie, Chris Sutton, Grant "proper man" Holt, Bosko Balaban. MF: Djemba Twins, Leandro "Champions League" Bacuna. DF: Kieran Richardson, Steve Foster, Honorable Mentions to: Richard Dunne/James Collins (both were OK for a year but then disgraced themselves by disrespecting a club legend).

Going to Spuds as an assistant is great move for anyone looking to raise their profile in coaching. Good chance he'll be a caretaker manager within 6 months....

We do have a "history" when it comes to needing to kick on, and I share your ingrained pessimism on the subject! There were a few times when we did do it, the most notable of course being the acquisition of a certain Peter Withe for a club record fee in 1980. The Dean Saunders purchase in 1991 and Collymore in 1997 were also similar moments, with the latter being a spectacular failure. However, for the most part the club (Doug Ellis) always has failed to recognize the need and opportunity, or be willing to "speculate to accumulate" and take the required risk.... We bought Cascarino when Sheringham was the answer. We bottled the deal for Juninho. We bought Heskey and Harewood when there were plenty of better options. Having said all that, I believe we are in a completely different moment in our history with this ownership and manager. It is a more measured, calculated, and well-planned approach to improvement, which may not be accompanied by that marquee signing, but more the addition of players to fit into a very specific framework. We shall see!